1993: Volume I

Balance. All I have to do is stand up. I put my left foot flat on the board, wobble for a second, then stabilize. My right foot is next. If I don’t do this right, I’m going straight in with the jellyfish. The creek is infested with the stinging creatures.     Here goes nothing. My right foot sweeps under me and lands flat on the wobbling board. Standing, I regain my balance.     I did it. I have conquered the paddleboard.

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake hit the capital city of the poorest county in the Western Hemisphere, dumping 19 million cubic yards of rubble and debris on Port au Prince, Haiti, and its people.     Two-year-old German shepherd Racker, of Eastport, rushed to the disaster, along with search-and-rescue dogs from France and Mexico.

Volunteers make Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties animal- and people-friendly communities. Here’s where to go to rescue an animal, find affordable care for your pet or help out.

Mindy Nelson admires the spirit of the thousands of charity-minded fundraisers who cast their warm bodies into the frigid waters of the Bay for Special Olympics every January.     “I thought, wouldn’t it be fun if dogs could do that?” says Nelson, fundraising and event coordinator for Anne Arundel County’s own Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Heather Boughey began our Father’s Day feature with her legendary tale of what her late  father, our beloved columnist Bill Burton, left behind. Magnetically, her story attracted a half dozen others. Read on for the legacies bequeathed another icon, Bernie Fowler; a politician, Mike Miller; a riverkeeper, Fred Tutman; a mourning adult daughter, Donna Ware; a fledgling fourth generation journalist, Bay Weekly intern Jesse Furgurson; and a foster child of beloved relatives, Marjorie Johnson.

It needn’t have been this way.         But when the overlords of Annapolis rendered the Eastport Bridge useless in 1998, the good people of Eastport were in a quandary. That was the occasion for the cannon shot heard ’round the upper reaches of Spa Creek. Revolution was at hand.

“Why am I always stuck in the mud?” asked five-year-old Xavier Dailey. Xavier was one of the youngest in the group of rummaging herptile hunters on the annual pilgrimage, this year to Kings Landing Park in Calvert County in search of amphibians and reptiles.

   1993    • New Bay Times born April 22 to Sandra Olivetti Martin, Bill Lambrecht and Alex Knoll and delivered every two weeks. • Bill Burton, just retired from the Evening Sun, hires on as outdoors columnist. New Bay Times stock soars.

Since birth, Eaton’s destiny has been to serve. The golden retriever-Labrador mix was bred to be a calm, focused and obedient companion to a human in need. Aspiring to join the 1,721 active Canine Companions for Independence teams, Eaton hopes to help a disabled owner live a fuller life.     For duty’s sake, Eaton gave up a typical puppy-hood.